Thursday, November 30, 2006

Oh yeah, we have a real game tonight, huh? Anaheim Ducks(18-2-6, 1st in west) at Vancouver Canucks(12-12-1, 8th in west)

Don’t have time for too much today, but Tom Benjamin asks the question: Why does the NHL continue to lose ground in the United States? In the comments, there is some discussion about the move from ESPN to Versus, which naturally moves the sport out of the public consciousness.

Well check out how we got it in Southern California, which has two sports networks (Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket) to split among four winter teams (Lakers, Clippers, Kings, and Ducks). For us Duck fans, that means that excess games get shifted to KDOC-TV, a local time-capsule station that serves us all a hot helping of TV nostalgia. Look at today’s schedule, for example:

Did you miss it? No no, that’s not the 70s sitcom “NHL Hockey” at 7 pm, but rather tonight’s NHL contest. Hey, I for one am glad that KDOC picks up the local coverage baton, but really, who’s going to be accidentally watching tonight’s game? The guy who lost his Nick-at-Nite channel? (Note also that televised hockey is on the decline in Canada also; maybe it's not just us).

At any rate, three weeks ago today the Ducks won 6-0 in Vancouver, but that was a pretty deceptive score, as the Ducks scored on their 2nd, 4th, 9th, 17th, 22nd, and 23rd shots. That probably won’t be happening again tonight.

Still, the Canucks have scored 3 goals or more only twice in their last 14 games. The Ducks have scored 2 goals or less only twice in their last 16 games.

The NHL is run by a retard--that's why interest is declining. (There's no delicate way to put it.)

Overexpansion has diluted the talent pool too much. Teams play where there is no organic street level support for the sport. Either the teams need to invest way more heavily in subsidizing local youth and adult leagues, or they need to pull out of such areas.

If they wanted to really get viewership up, they'd broadcast EVERY game over the internet, just to say they did it first.